□ The registration system of non major crop varieties is an important variety management system established by China's Seed Law, aiming to accelerate the promotion and application of new varieties with high yield, high quality, characteristics and special purpose. At the same time, problems such as stealing other people's parents and applying other people's brands also emerge one after another, seriously disturbing the market order and infringing the interests of original innovators.
□ The special cleaning work of "imitation seed" is an important measure to thoroughly implement the purification action of seed industry to revitalize the market. Speeding up the cleaning up of "imitation seeds" is of symbolic significance for protecting farmers' rights and interests from infringement, purifying the seed industry market environment, strengthening the protection of intellectual property rights in the seed industry, and creating an ecological environment conducive to innovation in the seed industry.
Recently, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs announced the cancellation of the registration of non major crop varieties, cancelling 312 problematic varieties such as sunflowers, cucumbers, melons and oilseeds. This is the sixth batch of announcement on canceling the registration of crop varieties issued by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs since the launch of the special clearing work of "imitation seeds" of registered crop varieties in 2021. Up to now, all sunflower "imitation seeds" have been cleaned, and "imitation seeds" of cucumber, melon, watermelon, tomato, rape, etc. are being cleaned. The relevant person in charge of the Seed Industry Management Department of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs said that after three years of efforts, the seed industry market has been continuously purified, effectively maintaining the market order of protecting innovation and fair competition, and strengthening the confidence and determination of enterprises to increase R&D investment.
The registration system of non major crop varieties is an important variety management system established by the Seed Law of China, which aims to accelerate the popularization and application of new varieties with high yield, high quality, characteristics and special purpose. This system mainly relies on the applicant's commitment to conduct a written review of the compliance of the applied varieties. Since its launch in 2017, more than 30000 varieties have been registered, and a batch of new varieties with high yield, high quality, characteristics and special use have been launched, which has greatly met the demand for stable and safe supply of important agricultural products. However, because some applicants are dishonest, embezzle others' parents, apply others' brands and other issues emerge in endlessly, seriously interfering with the market order, infringing the interests of original innovators, and dampening the enthusiasm of enterprises for R&D innovation and investment, the industry has a strong response to the problem of "imitation seeds".
Sanrui Agricultural Science and Technology Co., Ltd. is a seed enterprise engaged in sunflower seed breeding, sales and promotion for a long time. Its self-developed sunflower varieties such as SH363 and SH361 occupy a large share in the domestic sunflower market, but the company has suffered from "imitation seed" infringement. Zhang Yongping, the chairman of the company, introduced that after three years of "imitation seed" cleaning, the average yield and income per mu of edible sunflower increased by 8% to 15% compared with that before cleaning, and the average income per mu reached 2050 to 2500 yuan. The sales income in 2023 increased by more than 53% compared with that in 2020, and the company's share of the national edible sunflower seed market recovered to more than 40%.
At present, species related infringement disputes are still frequent and prone to occur. It is still difficult to provide evidence for infringement and maintain rights to varying degrees. It is suitable for the development of modern biological breeding technology, comprehensively encourages breeding innovation, and a three-dimensional intellectual property protection system covering variety rights, patents and trade secrets has not yet been formed. The purification achievements of the seed market need to be further consolidated.
Yao Lu, the Rural Economic Research Center of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, said that from the perspective of the technical support system, due to the late start of the protection of variety rights, the registration, testing and identification of varieties in China are still at the stage of system construction, platform construction, rule introduction, standard learning, digestion and re creation, It is still exploring to rationalize the connection between the management system and mechanism of the testing and identification institution system itself and the service of the local seed industry management department, and the whole process testing and identification quality control and information management system has not yet been established. From the perspective of service varieties and objects, the existing testing and identification projects are basically limited to major grain varieties, and the professional testing coverage of characteristic economic crops such as fruits and vegetables, flowers, edible fungi is insufficient. From the perspective of grass root law enforcement, grass root regulatory law enforcement force and law enforcement efficiency need to be improved. The technical support required for the enforcement of seed industry intellectual property rights protection, such as variety molecular detection technology, standards, and the construction of variety DNA map database, variety testing and identification institutions, is relatively lagging behind, and it is difficult to obtain evidence, identify, implement, compensate, and achieve poor results for seed infringement Governance poses practical difficulties.
The special clean-up work of "imitation seeds" is an important measure to thoroughly implement the purification action of the seed industry to revitalize the market. Yao Lu said that accelerating the cleaning up of "imitation seeds" is of symbolic significance for protecting farmers' rights and interests from infringement, purifying the seed industry market environment, strengthening the protection of intellectual property rights in the seed industry, and creating an ecological environment conducive to innovation in the seed industry.
It is reported that in the next step, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs will continue to strengthen the protection of intellectual property rights in the seed industry, promote the expansion of "imitation seed" cleaning, and comprehensively promote the purification of the seed market. Specifically, the registration method for non major crop varieties will be revised, the registration guide will be optimized, the registration process will be improved, the in-process and post event supervision of variety registration will be strengthened, and the "imitation seeds" will be further cleaned up to comprehensively improve the quality and level of registered varieties. At the same time, we will continue to carry out the activities of the Year of Seed Industry Regulation and Law Enforcement, maintain the situation of strict investigation and crackdown on high pressure, crack down on counterfeits, fake brands, infringement and other illegal acts, and provide high-quality variety support to promote the improvement of unit yield in a large area and meet the people's needs for a better life.
